Vanilla multiplayer experiences?

[TheLastDays]

Gaul and Spain are universally accepted spectator factions which are good for nothing. Germania is a hard counter to rome. Picking egypt is frowned upon. An other chariot factions are balanced against Carthage/Brittania/Greece. Rome mega fails against any faction besides carthage/numidia/macedon(this matchup is balanced)/greece/spain/gaul/thrace/dacia.

I have never played Multiplayer and I have little interest in doing so but you just perfectly described an imbalanced game. A game where certain, limited matchups are somewhat fair for both sides cannot be called balanced. If you let a twenty-two year old bodybuilder wrestle against a six year old, the six year old might have a chance if you drug the bodyuilder with a lot of narcotics, tie his hands behind his back and give the six year old a gun but that doesn't make fights between adults and children generally balanced.

[Alsatia]

It's been a while, but Vanilla multiplayer would, in most cases, give me the win on a silver platter when I played Rome. I would play EB online right now, If it weren't for the fact that my Rome disc is lost . I miss those battles (but I remember that I never won many on EB).